What "weed need" is a space mission!

[xilman]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Someone has a great sense of humour!

Gently Used Orbital Launch Vehicle

Reminds me of an auction on Ebay some 16+ years ago now: Two office buildings, some re-assembly required. That one was pulled within 48 hours but not before I had chance to see it.

[chalsall]

If Musk does this kinda stuff in real life, just imagine what he dreams about....

[Dubslow]

In case anyone here is living under a rock (lets be honest, we probably all are), the Falcon Heavy's first launch attempt commences tomorrow at about 1830 UTC, which is roughly 15.5 hours from the time of this post.

[VictordeHolland]

Falcon Heavy performed beautifully !
The two side-boosters LANDED almost simultaneously!
Anybody know if the center stage 1 landed on the drone ship?

[CRGreathouse]

Originally Posted by VictordeHolland

Anybody know if the center stage 1 landed on the drone ship?

I still haven't heard anything, which makes me wonder if it didn't make it to Of Course I Still Love You. Of course it's still a great success regardless.

[only_human]

Originally Posted by CRGreathouse

I still haven't heard anything, which makes me wonder if it didn't make it to Of Course I Still Love You. Of course it's still a great success regardless.

Reddit comments are not optimistic about center core.

bitslizer • 1m
On the technical audio stream, at 38:29 you can hear them saying "We lost the center core"

https://youtu.be/-B_tWbjFIGI?t=38m28

latest Twitter comment:

Elon Musk
@elonmusk
17m
Upper stage restart nominal, apogee raised to 7000 km. Will spend 5 hours getting zapped in Van Allen belts & then attempt final burn for Mars.

update: oh so beautiful...

lon Musk
@elonmusk
4m
Live view of Starman youtu.be/aBr2kKAHN6M

Looking at Earth through the windshield is surreal.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by only_human

update: oh so beautiful...

This is such BS... I was watching this feed, and when they thought it wasn't live a PA ran up to Starman with a Starbucks Triple, Venti, Soy, No Foam Latte...

Also, clearly this has been chroma keyed. The earth which sometimes appears in the background has too little tessellation to be believable.

[Dubslow]

Although there's been no sort of official PR on the matter, not even the usual space media subjects, the TMI was apparently visible from New Mexico to LA to Portland; in the absence of official communication, everyone is sort of assuming it was successful

Edit: speak of the devil: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/961083704230674438

[Uncwilly]

Since we have now had a launch of the Falcon Heavy (with known pricing of the launch), I thought it would be good to revisit the post that started it all.

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

For all of you space buffs and fans, it is time to vent!

What is the most overlooked mission that you think should happen now?
What is a mission that you think should be given priority?
What mission would fill in some vital piece of knowledge or provide a new window of insight or explore new territory?

The rules:

• It must be an unmanned mission.
• It must not be directly overlap any current or currently planned mission. This includes ESA (and all other European space agencies), NASA, RSA, B612, JAXA, and all other national agencies.
• You have ~$1billion to work with.
• No breakthrough tech allowed.
• Must launch within 7 years and flight time to destination must be under 10 years. Primary Mission time is open, but must be covered by the funding.
• Launch vehicles must be near term available (no SLS, but Falcon Heavy is ok), max of 2 launches, and the cost of the launches are part of the $1B. (Assume that the launched craft can auto-dock if needed).
• A nominal amount of Deep Space Network support is available for a token charge.

Surprise us. Be creative.

So we should update the assumption of available rockets. Still no SLS (you can't afford the ride and they are not available. No Big Falcon Rocket (aka BFR). And as a reminder, destinations are not missions.

[kladner]

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...rly-depressing

Elon Musk is right: silly and fun things are important. But some of them are an indefensible waste of resources

On Wednesday, two things happened. In Syria, 80 people were killed by government airstrikes. Meanwhile, in Florida, Elon Musk fired a sports car into space. Guess which story has dominated mainstream news sites? The much-anticipated launch of Musk’s Falcon Heavy rocket, the most powerful ever launched by a private company, went off without a hitch. Musk successfully sent his cherry-red Tesla roadster hurtling toward Mars, launching what a CNN commentator called “a new space age”.

There is, perhaps, no better way to appreciate the tragedy of 21st-century global inequality than by watching a billionaire spend $90m launching a $100,000 car into the far reaches of the solar system.

[richs]

Originally Posted by Dubslow

Although there's been no sort of official PR on the matter, not even the usual space media subjects, the TMI was apparently visible from New Mexico to LA to Portland; in the absence of official communication, everyone is sort of assuming it was successful

Edit: speak of the devil: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/961083704230674438

I saw the third burn last evening and at first thought it was some space debris coming down. Looking at the object with binoculars, I could then tell it was a rocket thrusting but was unsure if was SpaceX or North Korea.